After 11 rounds of financing, a star company in Hefei is going to IPO.
The super track of autonomous driving has caught the global spotlight.
On November 6, 2025, two leading domestic autonomous driving companies, WeRide and Pony.ai, went public in Hong Kong simultaneously, triggering a wave of enthusiasm for intelligent driving stocks in the Hong Kong market.
It's worth noting that one of the backgrounds of Pony.ai's founders, Peng Jun and Lou Tiancheng, is from Baidu, known as the "West Point" of autonomous driving. There are quite a few practitioners with a Baidu - affiliated autonomous driving background, including Wang Jin, the founder of ISEE AI, and Li Zhenyu, a co - founder of Tashii AI.
Recently, an autonomous driving company established by Baidu itself is also aiming for an IPO. It is Deepway, a technology company specializing in new - energy heavy trucks and intelligent highway freight solutions, founded in 2020. Its headquarters is located in Hefei, known as the "City with the Best Venture Capital". The state - owned assets in Hefei are also deeply involved and have made multiple investments.
According to reports, shortly after Deepway held its first brand launch in 2021, it received an invitation from Hefei, hoping the company would "pay attention to Hefei". Since then, the founder, Wan Jun, has maintained close communication with the Hefei government. Whenever there is business progress, Wan Jun informs the relevant Hefei officials via WeChat.
Two years later, in November 2023, Deepway's headquarters was officially located in the Economic Development Zone of Feixi County. It is reported that it only took two months from the first negotiation to the official signing. Hefei also established a special service team for Deepway, providing comprehensive support from settling in R & D personnel to their children's enrollment.
After five years of development, based on the 2024 sales volume, Deepway ranks first in the global new - energy heavy - truck market with forward - defined (designed from scratch, not modified) models, becoming the leader in this niche market.
With this IPO, Hefei may gain another "NIO" in the heavy - truck industry.
The "Marriage" between Baidu and Lionbridge
According to the prospectus, Baidu is a strategic shareholder of Deepway, currently holding 17.28% of the shares. Baidu is not only an important shareholder of Deepway but also the core source of its autonomous driving technology. In fact, it can be said that Baidu is directly involved.
At its inception, Deepway obtained the authorization for Baidu's "white - box" autonomous driving technology, which is Baidu's only authorization in the commercial vehicle field. Deepway can conduct self - research and modifications based on tens of millions of lines of Baidu's source code.
An insider at Deepway once revealed that a simple autonomous driving software solution is difficult to implement, like "an interesting soul unable to find a good - looking body". Baidu's "white - box" authorization precisely injects the "soul" into Deepway and allows it to make in - depth customization and optimization according to the unique scenarios of trucks, such as anti - tail - swing when turning and long - distance cruising.
This cooperation enables Deepway to directly utilize Baidu's investment and accumulation in the autonomous driving field over the past decade since its establishment.
Behind this unique authorization, Deepway became the first company to implement Baidu's "Apollo X Plan", aiming to jointly create a unicorn in the field of freight autonomous driving.
The basis for this cooperation is that Baidu made a strategic investment of 1 billion yuan in Lionbridge Group in 2018, and Deepway is a joint - venture company established by Baidu and Lionbridge Group.
Wan Jun, the founder of Lionbridge Group, is at the helm of Deepway, and Tian Shan, the CTO, was formerly the person - in - charge of Baidu's commercial vehicle autonomous driving business.
When Deepway was founded in 2020, Wan Jun had been deeply involved in the logistics industry for eight years. Wan Jun graduated from Renmin University and founded Lionbridge Group in 2012, which is one of the largest truck finance companies in China.
Lionbridge Group focuses on logistics transportation platform services, R & D and manufacturing of intelligent new - energy trucks, and the truck finance field, with AI and big - data technology at its core. It has built a full - cycle intelligent service platform for commercial vehicles, covering more than 700 county - level cities in 30 provincial - level administrative regions across the country.
Wan Jun believes that in a field dominated by giants, a simple asset - light model is easily replicable. He advocates building core competitiveness through an "asset - light, operation - heavy" approach. Lionbridge is deeply involved in the drivers' operation scenarios, accumulating operating data of more than 140,000 truck drivers and building a unique risk - control model and industry barrier. This in - depth operation ability also became the key factor attracting Baidu's investment later.
It was this entrepreneurial experience that allowed him to closely observe the efficiency bottlenecks and cost dilemmas in the logistics industry. "Industry practitioners are approaching their limits but still can't make money," Wan Jun once said.
In the logistics industry, fuel costs and driver salaries are the two core costs, accounting for about 40% and 20% - 30% of the total expenditure respectively. Wan Jun's solution is to first reduce fuel costs through electrification and then gradually reduce the reliance on human labor through intelligence and autonomous driving.
Deepway's initial positioning was extremely clear: instead of simply converting fuel - powered heavy trucks to electric ones, it adopted a "forward - defined" approach, designing heavy trucks truly suitable for electrification and intelligence from scratch. In the early stage of the development of new - energy heavy trucks, most companies chose to make minor modifications to the existing fuel - vehicle architectures to quickly seize the market.
The company adopted a "two - stage" strategy to break through: in the first stage, it provides forward - defined new - energy heavy - truck solutions; in the second stage, based on the large - scale deployment of new - energy heavy trucks, it improves the overall industry efficiency through intelligent operation and transportation.
In terms of the technical path, Deepway chose to "skip L3 and aim directly at L4". Wan Jun calculated an economic account: an L3 system would increase the hardware cost of a single vehicle by more than 100,000 yuan, but it couldn't save labor costs because the driver still needed to take over at any time, resulting in a mismatch between input and output. Therefore, Deepway focuses on L2 (assisted driving to reduce costs) and L4 (driverless, the ultimate goal) that can solve core problems, forming its unique "Tianji - Flying Geese" intelligent formation transportation system.
Five years later, he presented a report card: a total of about 6,400 new - energy heavy trucks were delivered, covering 311 customers. The revenue in the first half of 2025 was 1.506 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 97.6%.
The strong complementarity between technology and scenarios and the alignment of visions give this company, a combination of strong forces, the greatest chance of success.
A Cumulative Loss of 1.702 Billion Yuan in Three and a Half Years
Deepway is growing rapidly.
In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, Deepway's revenues were 0, 426 million yuan, 1.969 billion yuan, and 1.506 billion yuan respectively.
The sales revenue of new - energy heavy trucks accounts for the vast majority of the total revenue. The suggested retail price range of its new - energy heavy trucks is between 470,000 yuan and 700,000 yuan (including VAT). The proportion exceeded 99% in 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025, while the proportion of parts sales was less than 1%. The intelligent freight solutions are provided for free and have not contributed to the revenue yet.
In terms of R & D investment, Deepway has been increasing it year by year. The R & D expenses in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first half of 2025 were 231 million yuan, 352 million yuan, 365 million yuan, and 179 million yuan respectively.
However, the company is still far from achieving profitability. The losses during the reporting period were 267 million yuan, 389 million yuan, 675 million yuan, and 371 million yuan respectively. The cumulative loss in three and a half years was 1.702 billion yuan.
Currently, the company has a relatively high asset - liability ratio. The total assets during the reporting period were 508 million yuan, 1.348 billion yuan, 2.556 billion yuan, and 3.92 billion yuan respectively, while the total liabilities were 691 million yuan, 1.92 billion yuan, 3.804 billion yuan, and 5.539 billion yuan respectively.
According to the prospectus, as of June 30, 2025, Deepway held 593 million yuan in cash and cash equivalents.
To improve its financial situation, Deepway is accelerating the construction of a three - electric intelligent factory in Changxing, Huzhou. After completion, the three - electric components produced annually can support about 50,000 vehicles. The cost of the three - electric system accounts for about 60% of the vehicle manufacturing cost. Achieving self - research and self - production is expected to significantly reduce the manufacturing cost.
In terms of future strategy, Deepway has already started overseas layout, establishing sales channel networks in countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Australia.
Deepway previously publicly stated to the media: "2025 will be the year of explosive overseas deliveries for the company. An independent international trading company has been established. In addition to exporting to the Middle East, it is also targeting markets in the United States, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand." Wan Jun also set clear goals for going global: "The overseas sales volume will account for more than 50% in 2028 and exceed 60% in 2030."
Hefei Aims to Nurture a "NIO" in the Heavy - Truck Industry
The state - owned assets in Hefei, known as the "City with the Best Venture Capital", have made multiple investments in Deepway.
In 2023, the Zhongan New Energy Vehicle Fund, in which the Anhui Railway Fund participated, completed an investment in Deepway.
In December 2024, Deepway announced the completion of a 750 - million - yuan Series B financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Zhongan Capital and Puhua Capital. The old shareholder, Jianxin Trust, increased its investment, and the Greater Bay Area Fund, Hefei Industrial Investment, and Feixi Industrial Investment participated in the follow - on investment. The funds from this round will be mainly used to support the company's R & D of electrification and intelligent technologies and mass production in the Hefei area.
It is reported that this is a coordinated participation of provincial, municipal, and county - level state - owned assets in Anhui: Zhongan Capital, representing provincial - level state - owned assets, holds 3.33% of the shares; Hefei Industrial Investment, as a municipal - level platform, holds 0.83%; and Feixi Industrial Investment, representing county - level capital, holds 0.5%.
In the heavy - truck field, in addition to Deepway, the new heavy - truck player, Lingyi Auto, has also settled in Hefei. With Deepway's listing, Hefei is expected to gain another "NIO" in the heavy - truck industry.
In addition to the Hefei state - owned assets, Deepway's shareholder background is quite impressive.
The prospectus shows that in five years, Deepway had 6 rounds of Series A financing, 3 rounds of Series B financing, and 2 rounds of pre - IPO financing, completing a total of 11 rounds of financing with a cumulative financing of 1.96 billion yuan. It has received investments from well - known institutions, industrial players, and local governments such as Baidu, Weiqiao Group, Qiming Venture Partners, Lenovo Capital, Guangyue Investment, Jianxin Trust, China Electronics Fund, Bank of Communications International, Mu Hua Kechuang, Huagai Capital, Zhongan Capital, Greater Bay Area Fund, Hefei Industrial Investment, Feixi Industrial Investment, and Puhua Capital.
In the last Pre - IPO II round of financing in August 2025, the cost per share of the company was about 38.94 yuan. Based on the known information, a rough calculation shows that the corresponding valuation at that time should have exceeded 5.4 billion yuan.
The continuous "blood - transfusion" from capital has supported Deepway's rapid development and huge investment. An important factor for capital to be willing to invest is the broad prospects of the industry. The Chinese market is leading the global transformation of heavy trucks to new - energy vehicles.
Data from the First Commercial Vehicle Network shows that from January to September this year, the new - energy heavy - truck market in China continued to boom, with a cumulative sales volume of 119,600 vehicles, exceeding the whole - year sales in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 198%. According to the forecast of CIC, by 2030, the penetration rate of new - energy heavy trucks in China will reach 53.5%, and the market size will reach 255.8 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.3%.
If Deepway successfully goes public, it is expected to become the "first intelligent - driving heavy - truck stock in the Hong Kong market", obtaining double premiums in brand and capital, and opening a new window for the entire intelligent new - energy heavy - truck track.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital). The author is Li Man, and it is published by 36Kr with authorization.